Comparison of transvaginal sonography and saline contrast sonohysterography in women with abnormal uterine bleeding: correlation with hysteroscopy and histopathology

Background: Transvaginal ultrasound is used conventionally as initial investigation of patients with abnormal uterine bleeding but saline contrast sonohysterography is a better technique to reliably distinguish focal from diffuse endometrial lesions. This study was performed to compare the ability of transvaginal ultrasonography and saline infusion sonohysterography as initial modality for the diagnosis of endometrial abnormalities in women with abnormal uterine bleeding.

Patients and methods: In a prospective study, 100 women with abnormal uterine bleeding were submitted to sequential examination by transvaginal ultrasound, and sonohysterography. The presence of focal endometrial lesions and the type of lesion (endometrial hyperplasia, polyp, submucous myoma, or malignancy) were noted. Predictive values were calculated by correlating the results with final diagnosis reached by hysteroscopy and endometrial biopsy.

Results: The sonohysterography had 92.9% sensitivity and 89.7% specificity compared to 71.4% sensitivity and 67.7% specificity achieved by transvaginal sonography. There was 91% agreement between saline contrast sonohysterography and hysteroscopy as compared to 69% for TVS (p = 0.002). The diagnostic performance of sonohysterography for 3 main endometrial abnormalities (i.e. endometrial hyperplasia, polyps and submucous myoma) was better than transvaginal sonography. The best results were seen in cases of submucous myoma where sensitivity and specificity of sonohysterography reached to 100% as compared to TVS (61.55 and 97.7% respectively).

Conclusion: Our results have substantiated that sonohysterography is a better tool than transvaginal sonography for the assessment of endometrial intra-cavity lesions. By providing accurate differentiation between focal and diffuse endometrial lesions, it can help in decision making regarding selection of cases for hysteroscopy and directed biopsy. We recommend that saline contrast sonohysterography should be used as an initial investigation in cases of abnormal uterine bleeding.